Conventionally, an electronic settlement service system employs a credit card in a form of a magnetic card, and an electronic small amount settlement service system employs a smart card formed by installing a IC chip in a mobile telephone. In the credit card settlement system, information about a member is stored by a credit settlement terminal installed at a shop or a cash dispenser, and then read by a card reader of the credit settlement terminal or the cash dispenser. The credit settlement terminal or the cash dispenser transmits the read information to a bank system via a PSTN (public switched telephone network), thereby providing credit card services to the member. On the other hand, in the smart card settlement system in which the IC chip is installed within the mobile telephone, data corresponding to a designated amount of money is stored in the IC chip. Therefore, whenever the member settles the small amount of money using the smart card, the amount of money is deducted from the stored total amount. Therefore, if stored total amount of the money is completely spent, the IC must be recharged.
The aforementioned conventional systems have several problems as follows. First, it is not easy to possess a plurality of the magnetic cards. As the number of banks for which a member registers increases, the number of cards issued by different banks and then possessed by the member also increases, thereby causing an inconvenience and increasing the possibility of loss. Particularly, the number of cards possessed by one member, including department cards and customer management cards at each shop as well as the bank credit cards, drastically increases, thereby being difficult in management.
Second, in case of the smart card, the IC chip for storing electronic currency is installed within the mobile terminal, thereby increasing the production cost of the mobile terminal. Further, after the stored money is completely spent, the IC chip must be recharged, thereby making the member to go to a charging station and generating an inconvenience to the member. Further, a cash payment service cannot be provided to the member via the smart card system.
Third, since the conventional credit card service system cannot receive various messages from banks or department stores, it cannot various banking services. For example, when a member wants to receive banking services such as a money transfer from an account to another account, the member needs to visit the corresponding bank or use other media such as telephone and Internet. Further, in case of introducing new products of the banks or the department stores, the magnetic card cannot transmit and receive various service related messages.
Fourth, since the credit card service using the magnetic card and the smart card service using the IC chip are two separate services, it is difficult to integrate two services one thing, thereby causing complicate matters to the members. For example, in order to use the small amount settlement service, the member must possess the smart card installed on the mobile terminal. On the other hand, in order to use the cash payment service, the credit card service, etc., the member must possess the bank card in a form of the magnetic card separately from the mobile terminal. Therefore, it is impossible to provide an integrated banking service to the members.